Kan extensions and the calculus of modules for ∞\infty-categories

Various models of $(\infty,1)$-categories, including quasi-categories, complete Segal spaces, Segal categories, and naturally marked simplicial sets can be considered as the objects of an $\infty$-cosmos. In a generic $\infty$-cosmos, whose objects we call $\infty$-categories, we introduce modules (also called profunctors or correspondences) between $\infty$-categories, incarnated as as spans of suitably-defined fibrations with groupoidal fibers. As the name suggests, a module from $A$ to $B$ is an $\infty$-category equipped with a left action of $A$ and a right action of $B$, in a suitable sense. Applying the fibrational form of the Yoneda lemma, we develop a general calculus of modules, proving that they naturally assemble into a multicategory-like structure called a virtual equipment, which is known to be a robust setting in which to develop formal category theory. Using the calculus of modules, it is straightforward to define and study pointwise Kan extensions, which we relate, in the case of cartesian closed $\infty$-cosmoi, to limits and colimits of diagrams valued in an $\infty$-category, as introduced in previous work.Comment: 84 pages; a sequel to arXiv:1506.05500; v2. new results added, axiom circularity removed; v3. final journal version to appear in Alg. Geom. To

Completeness results for quasi-categories of algebras, homotopy limits, and related general constructions

Consider a diagram of quasi-categories that admit and functors that preserve limits or colimits of a fixed shape. We show that any weighted limit whose weight is a projective cofibrant simplicial functor is again a quasi-category admitting these (co)limits and that they are preserved by the functors in the limit cone. In particular, the Bousfield-Kan homotopy limit of a diagram of quasi-categories admit any limits or colimits existing in and preserved by the functors in that diagram. In previous work, we demonstrated that the quasi-category of algebras for a homotopy coherent monad could be described as a weighted limit with projective cofibrant weight, so these results immediately provide us with important (co)completeness results for quasi-categories of algebras. These generalise most of the classical categorical results, except for a well known theorem which shows that limits lift to the category of algebras for any monad, regardless of whether its functor part preserves those limits. The second half of this paper establishes this more general result in the quasi-categorical setting: showing that the monadic forgetful functor of the quasi-category of algebras for a homotopy coherent monad creates all limits that exist in the base quasi-category, without further assumption on the monad. This proof relies upon a more delicate and explicit analysis of the particular weight used to define quasi-categories of algebras.Comment: 33 pages; a sequel to arXiv:1306.5144 and arXiv:1310.8279; v3: final journal version with updated internal references to the new version of "Homotopy coherent adjunctions and the formal theory of monads

Categorical notions of fibration

Fibrations over a category $B$, introduced to category theory by Grothendieck, encode pseudo-functors $B^{op} \rightsquigarrow {\bf Cat}$, while the special case of discrete fibrations encode presheaves $B^{op} \to {\bf Set}$. A two-sided discrete variation encodes functors $B^{op} \times A \to {\bf Set}$, which are also known as profunctors from $A$ to $B$. By work of Street, all of these fibration notions can be defined internally to an arbitrary 2-category or bicategory. While the two-sided discrete fibrations model profunctors internally to ${\bf Cat}$, unexpectedly, the dual two-sided codiscrete cofibrations are necessary to model $\cal V$-profunctors internally to $\cal V$-$\bf Cat$.Comment: These notes were initially written by the second-named author to accompany a talk given in the Algebraic Topology and Category Theory Proseminar in the fall of 2010 at the University of Chicago. A few years later, the now first-named author joined to expand and improve in minor ways the exposition. To appear on "Expositiones Mathematicae